This invention relates to handrail assemblies and particularly an assembly designed to provide a temporary handrail for toddlers or small children.
A variety of handrail constructions are known at the present time, some being designed for installation on a wall along a stairway while others are designed for mounting on posts. Generally the handrails are mounted at a height above the stairs or the floor suitable for an average adult. Although the provision of two or more rails at different heights appears to be known, such rails appear to have been provided in the past mostly along elevated locations such as a porch or sundeck with the lower rails being intended to prevent people from falling off the porch or sundeck by passing under the uppermost rail.
One area of concern for a family with young children is the possibility of a yound child falling down the stairs in a house. For a small child or toddler, the existing handrail is generally mounted too high above the stairs for the child to reach or use. In the past, this problem has been partially met by providing temporary gates that close off the stairway at at least one end so that the child will not attempt to climb or descend the stairs without the assistance of an adult. However the known gates for closing off the end of a stairway suffer from several disadvantages including the fact that they are annoying for adults who must open or remove the gate each time they wish to use the stairway. Secondly the child is not provided with means for negotiating the stairs himself and it would be advantageous if the child could safely negotiate the stairways without the assistance of an adult or older child.
Canadian patent number 619,682 issued May 9, 1961 to Louis Blum describes an ornamental rail structure for mounting on special posts. There are upper and lower rails secured to the posts by expansible clamping members. The clamps are mounted by bolts in vertical slots formed in the posts. The posts which can be made of aluminum, can be covered on one side by wooden facing strips having a T-shaped cross-section. This known construction is not suitable for mounting handrails along an existing inner wall of standard construction inside a house or dwelling.
More recent U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,374 issued Apr. 16, 1974 to Architectural Art Mfg., Inc. describes a handrail structure that is also designed for mounting on special posts. An upper handrail can be mounted along the top of the posts while a lower handrail is provided approximately midway up the posts. The two handrails are mounted in a similar manner and the mounting mechanism includes a T-shaped bracket connected to a transversely extending tube. Clamp mechanisms and a bolt secure the inner end of the tube to the post. Again the handrails taught in this patent specification are not suitable for mounting on a standard inside wall such as one constructed from wooden studs and wallboard.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a handrail assembly which can be quickly and easily mounted to a wall extending along a stairway for the purpose of providing a temporary handrail for small children.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a child's handrail that requires no new holes to be put in a wall (assuming that there is already an existing handrail mounted on the walls for adults) and that requires no special skills or tools in order to be erected. When the handrail assembly of the present invention is no longer required because the small child has grown sufficiently so that he or she is able to use the adult handrail, the temporary handrail can be removed from the wall and dismantled without damaging the wall or leaving hard to remove marks on the wall.